2017 has been a huge year for me, and I bet it has been for you too. Everybody’s been saying it. Challenging, rewarding, and all those nuances inbetween.

And the time’s gone so quick as well, quicker again, surely, than the year before, which went quicker than the year before that and so on…

My folks over in good ole Germany also had a bit of a huge year, not least because they will be moving in 4 weeks time (downsizing and all that) – and that’s why I am going over again – as a friendly littler helper, for a bit of a Northern Sea holiday and to spend precious time with those nearest and dearest I don’t get to hug in person all that much.

Alas, all this jetsetting begs the obvious question of ethical me:

What kind of a hypocrite solarpunkster am I?

Preaching water while gorging myself wine, much?

Going on another plane trip, jetting around the world like the privileged middle class white woman I am?

This ethical conundrum really hit me, where else but in the shower yesterday. What to do? How to live more true to my values? How to add more integrity to my life?

And the answer came up reasonable quick, no doubt thanks to the infinite wisdom of the universe that I have been surrendering to and tapping into and opening up to so much lately:

I shall plant some trees to offset my plane travels!

And it just so happens that my beloved has just moved to a property of several acres that is in need of more native trees and shrubs to give more privacy and attract more bird life!

Hooray!

So, this Solarpunkster is gonna commission a couple hundred dollars worth of trees to soak up her plane trip!

Yessssssss!

There are simple, often creative remedies for hypocrisy and so many other issues plaguing the world and humanity – here just one example.

Since I first met Laura aka acesonued (pronounced: ah-key-so-noo-eed) at Zday 2015 in Brisbane, she has really embraced her own style. And that style has become more and more Solarpunk whenever I had the pleasure of checking it out. Or the other way around, acesonued is defining the Solarpunk style more and more – after all the Solarpunk style is still being birthed by artists just like her.

acesonued’s visual art is an expressive scifi-manga-co(s)mic-psychedelic-solarpunk fusion which I would call Dali-esque at times (not that I have many visual artsy credentials but I know Dali-dream style when I lay eyes on it!) – colourful, explosive, thoughtful, multi-faceted – in short, beautiful.

If that wasn’t Solarpunk enough yet, acesonued is also a musician. She plays guitar and piano, writes her own music and portrays it in her angelic voice – acting as much-needed and appreciated support in the healing of our Great Mother Earth and our own kind.

I greatly admire acesonued’s dedication to her creative expression, her art and style. She really lives on a different plane than most, sees the world with different eyes, and through her visions and creations shapes the world around her for the better – baby step by baby step.

Just like most of us Solarpunks do!

acesonued is showcasing her work and playing some tunes this coming weekend at her cave in Annerley, Brisbane, so come on over, say hi – and maybe even support her by buying a print that calls out to your heart’s desire…

Rob Brezsny is a writer, musician, astrologist and “culture hero”, who has added priceless amounts of beautiful soul, mind and ❤ food to the world since the eighties.

My housemate, friend and fellow writer Michelle Karen has followed his quirky-creative-hilarious-beautiful-uplifting (and usually spot-on) zodiac predictions for years. She leant me his book “Pronoia”, which is like an intriguing Solarpunk bible that I open at a random spot when I feel down and then don’t want to put down. Pronoia kickstarts our gratitude mode and inspires us to improve ourself, our lives, our relationships – and through all that, the world around us. In baby steps, in giant leaps, through dreaming, screaming or chilling the f*%# out – pretty sure Free Will Astrology will float your boat in various ways, just like the whole culture and genre of Solarpunk really 🙂

“Like a mutant love-child of Jack Kerouac and Anais Nin, Rob Brezsny writes with devilish humor, spiritual audacity, and erotic intensity. The Televisionary Oracle is a kick-ass gnostic tale. Prepare to be astonished.”
—Jay Kinney (author, Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions

In one of Sacred Uproar’s signature performance art pieces, Brezsny offers revelers the chance to get married to themselves. “Let’s all just admit,” he says early on in the wedding ceremony, “that none of us is ever likely to find our perfect partner or create the juicy romance we deserve until we first master the art of loving ourselves with great ingenuity.”

Reminding you that you can have anything you want if you’ll just ask for it in an unselfish tone of voice

Programmed to prevent the global genocide of the imagination

Hi, beauty and truth fans, and welcome to The Most Secret Spectacle on Earth, brought to you by the Menstrual Temple of the Funky Grail, Beauty and Truth, Inc., and Twenty-Two Minutes of World Orgasm.

We’re your hosts with the Holy Ghost grins, and we’re proud to announce that this is a perfect moment. This is a perfect moment because you, my beloved friends and teachers, have taken the first step in a ritual which could lead to the end of your amnesia.

At this perfect moment you have somehow managed, by fabulous accident or blind luck or ingenious tricks, to tune in to the Televisionary Oracle — proving that you’re ready to recover your repressed memories of your sublime origins, and know again the Thirteen Perfect Secrets from Before the Beginning of Time.

Welcome to the end of your nightmares! The world is young, your soul is free, and a naked celebrity is dying to talk to you about your most intimate secrets right now!

Just kidding. In actuality, the world is young, your soul is free, and at any moment you’ll begin to feel horny for salamanders, clouds, toasters, oak trees — and even the ocean itself!

Whoever you think you are, whatever friendly monsters you’ve tried to make into your gods and goddesses, whatever media viruses you might have invited into your most private sanctuaries-you can decide right now that your turning point has arrived. You can decide that you’re ready to change your lives … and change your signs … and change your changing. Because when you tuned in the Televisionary Oracle, you tuned into your own purified, glorified, unified, and mystifying self.

We’re your hosts for it all, beauty and truth fans. Your MCs for the Televisionary Oracle. Your listeners and your protectors and the sacred janitors we hope you’ve always wanted.

Does it matter what we call ourselves? You can refer to us any way you want. Your Sweet Fairy Godparents. Your Spirit Guides or Extraterrestrial Midwives or Personal Diplomatic Representatives to the Queen of Heaven.

I immensely enjoyed their About page, so I’ll just go ahead an quote a couple of t why the name OBSOLETE!?

In post-post-post-modern society even the term “obsolete” is becoming obsolete- products are obsolete before they hit the market-place, technology is only good as long as its replacement is in beta-testing.

And this beautiful explanation of why a zine in print form was created in the information age of digital everything, where knowledge does not equal wisdom and cultural rigidity is indeed more ripe than we like to admit.

In the early part of the 20th century, Harold Innis, a Canadian media theorist and predecessor of Marshall McCluhan, postulated that great civilizations were those that balanced “time-binding” media (which retain ideas and history), and “space-binding” media (which allows ideas to travel rapidly). He felt, back in the 50’s, that western society was relying too much on space-binding media like radio and television, and that the over-exposure was leading to a culture where “…The emphasis on change is the only permanent characteristic.” He felt that this trend would kill shared experience and local identity and create and atmosphere of paranoia and rigid political militarization. No one knows what Innis would have thought of the internet, but despite all of the great gifts of modern technology, some of Innis’ warnings seem to be coming true. Despite the gushing flow of “free” information, cultural rigidity appears to be setting in.

And lastly, spoken by true Solarpunks:

The books we publish reflect our love for the physical world and the DIY aesthetic.

I’ll add here that digital versions are also available as the good OBSOLETE! peops recognises the digital media!

It’s so worth a read, but if you are strapped for time, here are some standout quotes:

Utopias require that we do the difficult, necessary work of
envisioning a better world. This is why imagination is the first,
best weapon of radicals and progressives.

Fredric Jameson observed, “It is easier to imagine the end of
the world than the end of capitalism” – and the reason for that
is not that capitalism is the inevitable destiny of humankind
but that we have spent our lives being told that even thinking
about any other future makes us ridiculous.

Right now, the future seems dark and frightening and it is
precisely now that we must continue to imagine other worlds
and then plot ways to get there. In the midst of multiple global
crises, the only truly ridiculous proposition is that things are
going to stay exactly the same.

There is plenty of art out there that could be “classified” as Solarpunk, but the genre is still so underground that not many identify with it (yet).

So I will introduce some artists who I would love to label as Solarpunks, even though labels don’t usually sit well with me…more on that in future posts. In the context of Solarpunk though, I am more than happy to label and be labelled, and hopefully so will these wonderfully inspiring individuals that currently form the centre of my artivism focus!

Making art and fashion – pardon me, I meant of course – trashion out of “junk” collected on beaches is how Marina DeBris encourages us to re-think, re-use and re-cycle stuff.

What an excellent, Solarpunky way to question how we use stuff and what happens to it when we are done with it.

There is plenty of art out there that could be “classified” as Solarpunk, but the genre is still so underground that not many identify with it (yet).

So I will introduce some artists who I would love to label as Solarpunks, even though labels don’t usually sit well with me…more on that in future posts. In the context of Solarpunk though, I am more than happy to label and be labelled, and hopefully so will these wonderfully inspiring individuals that presently form the centre of my artivism focus!

There is plenty of art out there that could be “classified” as Solarpunk, but the genre is still so underground that not many identify with it (yet).

So I will introduce some artists who I would love to label as Solarpunks, even though labels don’t usually sit well with me…more on that in future posts. In the context of Solarpunk though, I am more than happy to label and be labelled, and hopefully so will these wonderfully inspiring individuals that presently form the centre of my artivism focus!

Molly Crabapple is not just an amazing visual artist, but also a gutsy journalist, activist and excellent writer. Strength of character, honesty and a healthy sense of humour make her stand out from the pack. Her memoir is a page turner with many meaningful quotes and gorgeous illustrations. Her art is unique, at once beautiful, disturbing, and insightful. She is the example for artivism (activism+art); reviews calling her “a brilliant and principled artist – can’t get much more Solarpunk than that!

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